Good Leg Workout & Even Better Butternut Squash Soup

Leg Day
Today was leg day for me. I was oddly excited about getting the workout done too. Maybe it's because that signals my rest day is on the horizon (tomorrow).

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* Firewalkers 
** Swing lunge

The idea behind this workout is to include some heavy lifting exercises in conjunction with exercises the target the hamstring and glutes as well as abductor muscles.

The reasoning is purely personal and based on my own research as well as advice from my physical therapist. Remember, I'm not expert here. I am a runner contending with injuries likely stemming from imbalances in the hamstrings, glutes, and abductors.

But, I do still want to build so I continue to include the barbell squats for power (and they are an awesome leg exercise period) but also unilateral work like the step ups and swing lunges, which are also good for assisting with stabilization (I definitely have a weaker side).

There are lots of other exercises I need and would like to use as well. I almost feel like I could do leg workouts twice a week in order to hit all areas effectively.

Today's leg workout was really good. I went into the workout with a clear head, ready to work. I really feel like I could have increased the weight for the squats, but was worried about doing so with my heel pain. I didn't want to jeopardize my form by not being able to take the weight in my heels evenly.

Soup Thursday
After work I did my now-typical 25-30 minutes of stretching and rolling. Still not sure how effective it is, but it's kind of relaxing...well, other than dogs in your face.

The temps have dropped off recently, it's not freezing, but much colder than it's been most of the winter. I had butternut squash and kale on hand, so I went with an easy soup: Butternut Squash, Kale & Barley Soup.

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If you like the key ingredients (butternut squash, kale, barley), then it's hard not to like this hearty vegan soup. It's packed with protein and tons of vitamins and minerals. I guess it's a true feel-good meal ;-)

Daily To-Enjoy List:

• Leg workout
• Fun email convo with my friend Jessica
• Painting my nails
• Relaxing

Weights, Tabata & BBQ Tofu

Weights & Tabata 
Today I had to do my workout after work. We had a birthday lunch celebration for my boss. I used to workout exclusively after work. It's kind of funny how you can really get used to working out at a certain time of the day. Anything other than that time and you're sort of thrown off. Or I am anyway.

Not only are you more fatigued by the end of the day, you don't know anyone up at the gym at that time! They're looking at you like you're a newbie and you're looking at them like they must be. All I know is I want my little area and that's it.

I started off with 10 minutes easy on the elliptical to get warmed up. Then I went with back, shoulders, and chest for today. I almost did legs, but decided to hold off and do those tomorrow

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* Kettlebell squat pulls (but not hopping up on toes, couldn't find a better example sadly)

**Up/down plank (last exercise shown)

I did the tabata three times through for a total of 15 minutes. Honestly, I almost called today a rest day. I just wasn't feeling it. But once I got moving along, everything started clicking. I felt stronger than I anticipated and then the tabata was really energizing - as crazy as that probably sounds.

After I got home, I spent about 25 minutes rolling out and stretching. Not sure if all the rolling is helping, but the stretching feels great at least.

BBQ Wednesday
Originally I had thought I was going to do Wok Wednesday and make up an easy stir fry. But, I didn't have some fresh veggies I wanted to use, like carrots. You gotta have carrots for stir fry right? Ok, maybe not, but I do.

We ended up making BBQ Tofu Sandwiches. Lately if we do BBQ I just add the sauce to tempeh with some veggies. It's been a while since I've baked the tofu in slices basted with BBQ - typically do this and grill in the summer.

So, that's the method I went with for the evening. I dry-seared the tofu to remove most of the moisture then basted in BBQ sauce and baked until firm - flipping once and re-basting.

Since every BBQ sandwich needs a slaw, I made up a quick one using napa cabbage, thinly sliced red bell peppers, and green onions. I tossed in a simple marinade of rice wine vinegar, red wine vinegar, agave, and salt and pepper.

 

 And of course this had to be eaten with a fork!

Daily To-Enjoy List:

• Good workout
• BBQ dinner
• Getting some chores knocked off to-do list

What I'm Reading on Taco Tuesday

What I'm Reading
Well, thankfully Miss Crazy Maddie decided to actually sleep all night. No nutso barking episodes. I read myself to sleep by 9:30 and slept fairly well. I'm out of fiction books, so I have resorted to reading much-needed running recovery books instead. Not exactly riveting, but valuable information.

The one I've been reading is The Athlete's Guide to Recovery by Sage Roundtree. Honestly, I wish I had this book from the very beginning of starting to run. It's mostly geared towards endurance athletes, but honestly has great information for any athlete.

One chapter that struck me was discussing being able to recognized pain symptoms. In other words, you workout and expect sore muscles. But when does that soreness indicate something more,  like an injury?

For starters, when the soreness is unilateral (hand raised), when the soreness doesn't go away (hand raised), when it is not from changing up exercises (hand raised). I had so many red flags and just chalked it up to long distances and general fatigue of workouts. And of course, in hindsight, I just want to smack myself.

She also goes into detail about using heart rate, not just during exercise but in rest, as an indicator of "over reaching" and varying your workout loads. It gets a little technical, but she also does pretty good about simplifying it enough that it makes sense.

Anyway, if you're an athlete of any kind, I do highly recommend this book. Do you have any training books you recommend? Please share. I'd love to know!


PT Updates
A lot of you have asked about how physical therapy is going or how it went yesterday. I don't want to constantly harp on my injuries, so I've been shying away a little bit. Right now my heel is beyond tender. The physical therapist worked on it for nearly an hour.

I'm doing every stretch suggested as well as rolling it out on a golf ball for a solid 30 minutes each day. I'm also still doing extra stretching and rolling for my piriformis muscle.

The PT (who happens to be a triathlete training for her first Ironman) is hopeful, but also cautious. She wants me to hold off running for 2 more weeks. She also tried taping it up with kinesio tape. I know a lot of runners swear by it. I was hoping for some miracle. Honestly, I can't tell any difference.

I did go to spin class today. Mostly because I can't make it tomorrow and Jason joined me. Otherwise, I would have taken a rest day or gone with upper body. It was a good class though. I'm definitely not sorry I went.

Taco Tuesday
Honesty, feeling super lazy and uninspired when it comes to cooking lately. I have a full fridge, stocked pantry, and I just don't really want to mess with cooking, with coming up with something (creative or otherwise), with making and cleaning up a mess. Nada.

But, we aren't ones to go out to eat during the week or even pick up to-go for that matter. So, that means something needs to get made. Since it's Tuesday, I went with the Taco Tuesday theme to make it simple on myself. At least the menu was set right?

I ended up going with a combo of tempeh and black beans for the filling. I did saute up some onions and bell peppers then added in the beans and tempeh and seasoned with the usual Tex-Mex suspects including a splash of lime juice.

 

Since we had some corn tortillas on hand, I went with those over the typical wheat tortillas we use. Of course the tacos were topped with lettuce, tomatoes, Daiya, and lots of jalapenos.

Thank Goodness My Dog Is Cute

Yawn
Well, last night Jason had the Super Bowl on of course. I really could care less other than knowing football is really and truly over with for the season. I do enjoy catching the Puppy Bowl and occasionally the halftime show.

I did watch the halftime show... I just don't even know what to say about that. I think what was so off-putting was how blatant the lip-syncing was. But, it's just a show I suppose. At least there were no wardrobe malfunctions ;-)

I hit the sack by 9pm and thought I was in for a great night's sleep. Maddie had other plans though. Even downstairs, she can manage to wake us up. She started barking her head off, the "I've gotta to potty right now!" bark. So Jason got up and let her out.

Honestly, I have no idea what time this all started. I think it was around midnights. No less than 30 minutes later, she started up again. This pretty much went on most of the night or morning I should say.

Not a clue what her problem was. Well, she's spoiled that's what it boils down to. She had to poop but wouldn't pee. Then she realize she really had to pee. Then her water wasn't fresh enough. Then she had to potty again. It's a really good thing she's cute! Needless to say, I feel like a zombie today and it's not from some super fantastic Super Bowl party either.

Working Out and Physical Therapy 
Let's just say that lack of sleep left me a bit unenthusiastic about working out today. But, I got myself motivated enough for spin. I knew it'd be a good class. I also knew I'd feel tons better after going. It's just that whole getting going thing that was my problem today.

And of course once I got my workout clothes and changed my mindset, I was good to go. Spin isn't a walk in the park kind of workout, but sometimes those tough workouts really are what you need. You have to focus on the workout not anything else. Plus, a lot of laughter ends up happening when everyone is working hard. I think it's some sort of coping mechanism. Have you ever noticed that during a tough class?

I have physical therapy after work, so I won't be getting home until much later than I'm used to. Also, we're having to start the projects we put off over the weekend. So, dinner is going to be leftovers. I know you probably don't believe me as I almost never do leftovers. But today it's out of necessity and I'm going to take advantage of the fact that we do, indeed, have leftovers to use up.

I'm hoping the physical therapist can give me some additional advice for rehabbing my foot. Something more useful than what the doctor gave me.

Daily To-Enjoy List:

• Sunshine
• Spin class
• Leftovers

Tabata, Weights & Time With Friends

Saturday Recap
Yesterday Jason and I hit the gym. In lieu of  long run, I went with a cardio-only gym day. I started with 25 minutes on the elliptical then moved on to another tabata style workout.

I chose 8 exercises that included kettlebells. Each exercise is done for 20 seconds with 10 seconds rest then 1 minute rest after each circuit. I repeated 5 times for a 25-minute session.

Alternating side squats (body weight)
Single arm kettlebell swings
Kettlebell squats with overhead press
Side shuffles
Kettlebell swing with squat
Kettlebell squat with pull
Walking lunges (holding kettlebell in both hands)
Planks

This was a really great workout that flew by. I think that's the beauty of HIIT workouts.

After the gym, we hit the grocery store. That's about where our productivity ended for the day. Of course, if you count having fun with friends as being productive, then we were all over that one.

We ended up meeting our friends out for a drink. The guys played darts while my friend and I visited. Then we decided to just come back to our house and play pool for a few hours. I think it was a great way to spend a Saturday.

Sunday
Today I hit the gym again. I feel like I might as well just move up there at this point. I started with 20 minutes on the elliptical then hit the weights for biceps and triceps. I did 3 sets of the following (the reps varied a little more today depending on whether I was trying to increase the weights).

SS#1
Barbell curls (EZ Bar) - 6/7/6
Double-arm overhead triceps extensions - 8

SS#2
Hammer curls - 6
Weighted dips - 10

SS#3
Incline curls - 8 (4 at heaviest weight then 4 at next lighter)
Triceps pulldowns

I did some ab work using a medicine ball then called it done.

Honestly, we weren't very productive once again. Jason did go to Home Depot and pick up some supplies for one project. We just didn't get started on the project. I did get some laundry done at least. I also spent a lot of time stretching and rolling out again. So far, my piriformis and sciatica are doing pretty good. Now if I could just fix the heel pain I'd be back on track.

I didn't mention it on Friday, but I did get my MRI results back. After emphatically saying it wasn't plantar fasciits, the doctor recanted and said it was. In other words, no breaks or tears showed on the MRI. While I know that's great news, I'm still very frustrated with the lack of a solution for the pain.

They sent me some "exercises" to do for my foot. I already do those stretches and then some. It's really frustrating when you've been doing something that they say should fix the problem, but it's not. We did recently get some books for runners and injury prevention and recovery. One book suggested rolling out the area on a golf ball for 30 minutes each day regardless of how bad it hurts.

Thankfully, Jason had some golf balls so I have been trying that out along with the stretches. Fingers crossed it starts to help. Right now it just hurts like a mother....

I suppose it's still fairly early, so maybe we'll get inspired to be more productive. Otherwise, we have a lot to get done this week ;-) 

Daily To-Enjoy List:

• Weight day
• Relaxing
• Watching a movie

Fun Facts Friday - Bucket List

Gym Day
Typically Fridays are my rest days. But, I had a very unscheduled rest day on Monday, so today was another gym day. I guess since I'm not running, I can rethink my weight splits again for now. Of course, this leads to lots of overthinking, rethinking, thinking thinking thinking.

I wasn't sure what I was going to do today. There is no spin on Friday unfortunately. I thought maybe I could tough out the elliptical with a magazine for about 30 minutes then do kettlebells for about 15 minutes.

What I ended up doing was sort of a combo plus back. I was going to do back with biceps and triceps tomorrow, but this gave me a chance to focus specifically on back. That's a good thing of course. I can work the back without being tired from the biceps.

So, I did 20 minutes easy on the elliptical to warm up before doing supersets for back. I went with 2x8 unless noted:

SS#1
Wide-grip assisted chinups
Pullovers (increased weight)

SS#2
Barbell rows
Incline rear flyes

Rather than doing a standard ab workout after, I went for the kettlebells, light dumbells, and bodyweight. I did this tabata style (20 sec on, 10 sec rest twice through = 1 set at 4 minutes)

Kettlebell swings
Squat thrust with pushups
Kettlebell figure 8's
Front jabs with dumbbells

Fun Facts Friday - Bucket Lists
I had a friend send out an email, one of those survey types of things you're supposed to complete and send back around. It was about bucket lists.

Honestly, before the movie came out, I had never heard of a bucket list. I had no clue what that even meant. So, quite obviously I had never put one together. Actually, I still haven't. But, after getting the email, I thought it might be kind of fun to share what would be on my bucket list.

Plus, maybe it will motivate me to see it as something more tangible, something to actually shoot for rather than dream about.

1. Visit Italy - would love to see where my great-grandfather grew up
2. Earn my personal trainer certification
3. Visit California wine country
4. Finish and publish a book I started about my friend who was killed
5. Write a cookbook
6. Drive a race car

Ok, that's my list. Now it's your turn. What's on your bucket list?

Daily To-Enjoy List:

• It's Friday
• Good workout
• Happy hour with friends
• Relaxing with hubby

Leg Day & BBQ Tempeh Sandwiches

Early Morning & Leg Day
This morning started off even earlier than usual for me. I'm used to being at work by 7am, so I agreed to scheduling my MRI this morning at 7:30. They said to be there at 7 so I left extra early worried I'd somehow be late. Granted there was zero traffic at 6:40 am, and it was only 10 mins away.

But, being there extra early paid off. They sent me straight back, no waiting. What??? No waiting? I was shocked. The MRI only took 15 minutes (and thankfully it was just my legs in the tube) so I was at work by 7:30, only 30 minutes later than usual. I'll call that the big win of the day. Sometimes it does indeed pay to be early.

As for workouts, today was leg day for me. I flirted with the idea of doing the kettlebell tabata workout again, but my abs are actually sore from the workout, so I thought it'd be smart to hold off on that one another day or two.

So, legs it was. I was a little worried about what I could do considering it hurts to put much pressure on my heel. So, I kept the weights the same this week though I was hoping to increase them. As a way to make the exercises (some of them) harder without adding on more weights, I did low-end pulses instead. Talk about a killer burn.

I started with about 20 minutes on the elliptical to warm up. I did supersets of 3x8 unless noted. 

Barbell squats - warmup set of 10

SS#1

Barbell squats

Calf raises

SS#2

Step ups

Stiff-legged dead lifts

SS#3

Alternating front lunges with low-end pulse - 6 reps each side

Plie squats with low-end pulse

SS#4

Hamstring roll-ins on stability ball - 10 reps

Fire walkers - 4 steps each direction = 1 rep - did 4 reps per set

It was a pretty good workout overall. I was a little distracted by one guy who was incredibly loud and would do his power weights (he was just flying through sets) right in front of the racks and sometimes in front of me. Seriously wanted to kick him.

And you could tell he really thought he was all that and a bag of chips strutting around and trying to go super heavy with his weights as he was grunting, gritting, and rocking back and forth with so much momentum I thought he'd topple over. I totally wouldn't have helped him up either.

But other than that....it was a good workout ;-)


Tempeh Thursday
When I got home I did as the physical therapist instructed and stretched and rolled out on my Triggerpoint Therapy Kit. She was actually pretty impressed with the idea of the kit. I didn't stretch quite as long as I know I should have, but I did get in a good 20 minutes at least.

When it came to dinner, I really wasn't in the mood to cook. I just didn't feel like standing around in the kitchen or trying to be creative for that matter. It's getting towards the end of the week, meaning fresh veggies are disappearing from the fridge at this point.

 

I almost went with veggie burgers, but thought BBQ sounded better. So, I decided to do BBQ Tempeh Sandwiches similar to my BBQ Tempeh & Portobello Sandwiches (just not using portobellos). And what else would I possibly have on the side but sweet potato fries.

Daily To-Enjoy List:

• Sunshine
• Warm temps
• Leg day
• Painting my nails